I've used this strategy several times with electronic items and got away with 2% to 7% more discount off the tag price or extra freebies like powerbank or memory card. Unlike foods and clothes, electronic gadgets are non-essentials and are usually high ticket items so sales agents are more willing to part with a little commission just to make the sale. Who says it is prohibited? My parents thought so too but times have changed because of the stiff competition. Of course, bargaining at malls is different from bargaining at flea markets. I typically ask if they can give me a dealer's discount or if there's a dealer's promo for an item or brand.
I did this when I bought a 1200$ laptop from a mall. I couldn't ask for any discount because I paid with credit card. When we are testing the laptop already and installing basic software the wife of my brother asks for some freebies and they gave a mouse, and a USB storage. We agreed to buy it already and paid and on the last minute when we asked for some freebies they gave it to us.
You could have asked for extended warranty and they would have provided it gladly. I bought one a couple of years before and that was not as costly as yours. I asked for extended warranty (which was one year as per the deal). They gladly provided me an additional one year for $20 which was $45 otherwise. So, there is no harm for asking for freebies and discounts as the chances are you will get them.
Yes, while shopping at Retail Store but while Shopping at Online Store, I used to shop via coupon sites and prefer to use promo code for more discount.
My late mother is a very good on haggling items prices and she always made it. I tried her way of bargaining things which I would like to buy. Just a matter of two or three price haggling, I conceded right away. However, I have realized that it is too embarrassing to bargaining prices especially when there are many customers around. Though I still ask for a bargain but I usually as the last price. Then if I am agreeable or the price is reasonable, then I make a buy.
I never really thought about the whole salesperson willing to sacrifice a little for the sale, but it makes sense with some of the bigger items. I might just be adding this to my little list of tricks now.
It depends from area to area and country lol... While you are living in a country like India with 1.35 billion people, half of them having enough money to spend on different items and companies facing a cutthroat competition the businesses are ready to part with some of their profits to sale the product especially while the next shop selling the same product is willing to do that.
I recently bought a mobile phone. This time I bargained, and was able to get 5 percent discounts on the hand set and screen cover and phone cover for free.generally speaking, phones have fixed price and cannot be sold less than the company recommended price (in my home country), however, my bargain helped me get around $10 discounts.
I don't like to bargain, and this is why I shop from online in order to discount by applying coupon code while placing an order.
@Mahi But all deals are not coupon code based online. They have some great offers besides leading banks give you special discounts if you use their debit/credit cards. There is also the facility to go for buy-back schemes which provides you a chance to replace your used items on a reasonable price although this facility is mostly available in phones section. I am going to use this facility within a week by trading one of my phones which is not 100% fit but give me reasonable buy-back price.
@lucykey Well, it depends on where I actually went to buy the electronic gadgets. If it's stores, I would definitely bargain with them for prices in order to get some discounts but if it's online stores or shopping mall, there is no chance of bargaining because the prices are already fixed. @Mahi Definitely, there is no chance of bargaining when it's online purchase one is going to purchase from. Bargaining is directly decided by the choice of market one is willing to use when buying his products. @moneymania It's a general thing all around the world, there is no bargaining in malls, online stores or even some departmental stores. It's only when you find yourself in a street shopping outlet or general market that you are free to bargain for prices as you see fit.
@Heatman, Yes that's true, although I saw 1 thread here that says he was able to bargain for a PC by talking to the manager. I guess that is a very rare occurence.
Sellers of electronic gadgets always source their goods at low prices and there is always room for bargain. I try to buy them secondhand which come at a lower price or take advantage of open days of service providers for instance to buy mobile phones.
It's definitely on rare occasions that such can ever happen or two things are involved in that case. Either the manager is also the shop owner or they are about to start giving discounts to their customers but haven't yet made it a public knowledge, so the manager took it upon himself to give him discount without him knowing actually what he's done by reducing price for him.
@Heatman, Yes that's true, and the price markup in malls is quite huge already, so even if they offered discounts, they would still earn profit.
@remnant I hardly go for second hand electronics because of getting low quality products and also lack of warranty for such products should anything go wrong. Personally, I wouldn't have rest of mind with such electronics in my house, the thought of it getting spoilt early will always besiege my mind and that not something healthy. @moneymania Of course yes, that the departmental stores are offering discounts doesn't mean they are losing money, in fact if you look at it closely, they appear to be making more money as a result of increased sales as a result of the discount. They are making huge turn over when compared to selling without discount.
@remnant Second hand mobile phones? Seriously, what's the difference in the price between that and a brand new one? Personally, I think it's being penny wise and pound foolish going for second hand phones. Yes I totally agree it's definitely going to be cheaper but how long are you going to use it and it's starts developing fault? Have considered that anytime you want to buy such kind of product? @Heatman This is very correct, shopping malls won't give you the opportunity to even bargain because there won't be anyone standing over the product you are picking, you would rather see the price tags on each item in the store. So therefore, it's left for you to decide the price of the one you want to buy and pick it out and then go straight to the paying unit and give your money.
@Heatman, That's so true, have you noticed that the items in flea markets are priced much lower than the ones in the mall? So that means w/out the markup, the item's original price is that low as well, so we are paying quite more if we shop in the mall. I guess the only exception to this are the food prices.
Yeah, that's exactly my point. Even though it appears they are giving you a discount, they are still making a whole serious huge amount of money from any purchase made by any customer in the mall. I mainly go to mall when I'm not free to go buy at the general flea market.
